Shadowed Past
by Akiko Natsuko
Summary: When a spell gone wrong results in Natsu becoming a child; the rest of the guild are confronted with the reality of his early childhood. Rated M to be safe. Disclaimer: Fairy Tail does not and will never belong to me, I'm just toying with it.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail isn't mine.

FTFT

Natsu froze for a second, his nose twitching as he peered around at the trees surrounding them silently cursing the misty conditions. A slight noise off to the side confirmed what his nose was telling him and he sprang into action.

"Everyone down," he bellowed as spell fire erupted around them, Erza and Gray were immediately on the floor the latter pulling Happy down with him, but Lucy was a hair slower and he took in the spell racing towards her. Without hesitation he leapt towards her aware that he couldn't dodge all the spells and save her, with a shout he knocked her to the ground just as he felt something impact heavily with his back sending him tumbling forward. Gold light burst around him as he felt his thoughts tumble down into darkness.

The others buried their heads at the explosion of light to guard their eyes, fear rushing through them as they heard his cry and then silence. As soon as the light cleared they were up and moving, however, the sight that met their eyes froze them in place for a second… Instead of their nakama they found themselves staring at the sprawled body of a tiny child, only the familiar salmon-coloured hair telling them that this was in fact Natsu.

"Natsu?" Happy asked weakily before flying across to his friend, his actions shaking the other mages out of their paralysis as they heard further movement in the trees around him.

"Lucy protect Natsu," Erza ordered and the celestial mage nodded as she rushed across to the child, one hand on her keys as she dropped down beside him. With a quick glance at Gray the red headed mage indicated that they should take to the trees and without a word the ice mage sped off in the opposite direction, forcing his confused thoughts aside as he called on his magic.

FT

Carefully Lucy reached out to turn Natsu over, her eyes widening as she took in the damage that now covered his face and torso – bruises of various colours and age littered his body and she exchanged a confused glance with an equally shocked Happy. The injuries couldn't have come from the spells, but she knew that he had been perfectly fine beforehand.

"Natsu?" She called quietly aware of the sound of battle in the forest, gently pulling her friend into her lap as she tapped his cheek trying to elicit a response. There was no sign of response which made her frown with concern and hold onto him tighter.

"He's so small," Happy said as he moved closer to her, laying a paw on his best friend, concern in his huge eyes as he stared at the unconscious dragon-slayer. Lucy nodded in agreement, Natsu was small and it unnerved her to see him looking so vulnerable…somehow she had seen him as always having been as strong and undefeatable even when he was little; but the child in her lap was a stark contradiction to that belief.

A sudden noise made her glance up, her eyes narrowing at the strange wizard entering the clearing, clearly focused on Natsu. Her hand clenched on her keys and she opened her mouth ready to summon help when there was a flash of blue and white, and suddenly the intruder was encased in ice around his ankle. Letters appeared in the air around him which she immediately recognised as solid script magic, but before he could cast Erza appeared in front of him and the murderous expression on her face made him freeze. A second later Gray stepped out of the trees behind the trapped wizard, his expression equally dangerous as his gaze drifted briefly to Lucy and her charge before he refocused on the wizard.

"Lucy how is he?" Erza asked turning slightly to look at the other girl but keeping one eye firmly on her captive.

"I'm not sure," Lucy answered uncertainly as she released her hold on her keys. "Besides being de-aged, there's a lot of injuries that certainly didn't come from the spells that hit him and he still hasn't woken up," she added in concern.

"What did you do?!" Erza snarled whirling on the other wizard her eyes glinting dangerously, the guy blanched and her heart sank at the sight of confusion on his face.

"I don't know! I've never done that spell before!" He babbled in terror. "And it looked like more than one hit him, so they might have reacted funnily." He squeaked as her eyes narrowed and the sword that was pointed at him moved closer to his chest.

"Well undo it!" She demanded furiously her eyes dark with the promise of retribution if he didn't immediately comply with her demands.

"I don't know how!" All three fairy tail wizards gasped at that and Happy looked near tears, Erza growled glancing briefly at her now tiny friend before returning her attention to the idiot in front of her.

"Then you're coming with us," her fist flew out as she spoke and the wizard collapsed in an unconscious heap, seconds later ice appeared binding his hands together and she nodded to Gray in thanks before moving across to them and staring down at the child in Lucy's arms. "Oh Natsu," she murmured softly as she took in the new damage marring his body, taking a deep breath to stop herself turning around and beating the hell out of the wizard responsible for this.

FT

"He's waking up," Lucy cried as she felt a brief movement in her arms, at once Gray and Erza moved closer, the later changing into normal clothes…if Natsu was really a child she didn't want to scare him by appearing in armour and carrying weapons. They gathered around Lucy as the tiny child began to stir, olive eyes inching open before suddenly snapping open as he leapt away from Lucy's lap with a fearful expression on his face, tiny hands coming up instinctively as a shield.

"Whoa it's okay we won't hurt you," Lucy said softly as she took in the fear on Natsu's face, exchanging a quick glance with the other two who stepped back slightly so as not to crowd him. "You're safe with us, okay?" Lucy added smiling at the child as he very slowly lowered his arms although he made no move to come closer and they could see the tenseness in the small body; this along with the fact that there was no recognition whatsoever in his wary eyes showed them that the spells had caused more than cosmetic changes in their friend.

"Hey there," Erza said softly slowly moving into a crouched position so that she wasn't towering above the boy. "My name is Erza and this is Lucy, Happy and Gray," she said with a smile pointing to them each in turn before refocusing on the child. "Can you tell me your name?"

"N-Natsu," the child stuttered out after few minutes and they all shared a wave of relief that at least he remembered that much; but the fear in his voice was unnerving to them, especially to Erza and Gray who'd known him since childhood and had never heard him be anything but overly brave and confident.

"Natsu huh? That's a nice name," Erza said with a warm smile, flashing back briefly to her first meeting with the boy years ago.

"How old are you Natsu?" Lucy asked gently, and the little boy screwed up his nose for a moment before silently holding out his hand with four fingers showing. "Four huh?" She smiled at him for a second, before shooting an anxious look at her friends. To the other two mages this explained why he had no memory of any of them, as he had been older than that when he had come to the guild.

"What do you remember?" Gray asked making sure to keep his voice quiet so they didn't scare the child, for a moment the expressive olive eyes went blank and then suddenly tears appeared making the ice mage blanch in alarm and shoot a terrified look at Erza.

"Mama left me! She told me to go away," Natsu said tearfully before suddenly swaying, at once Gray reached out catching him as the boy collapsed causing the girls to sigh in relief.

"I've got him," Gray said softly as he picked Natsu up, shifting him so that the little boy was cradled safely against him. "Let's just hope Levy can help turn him back," he said glancing down at the pink haired child with worry – _what happened to you Natsu?_ He wondered as the boy's agonised words echoed in his mind, his eyes dark as he exchanged a furious glance with Erza; the red-haired girl shifting back into her armour as she picked up her captive with unusual roughness.

"She will!" Lucy exclaimed…_she has to_ she added silently also gazing at Natsu – how could anyone have abandoned him? Her heart hurt for her friend as she thought about how Igneel had also left him, no wonder he clung so desperately to his Fairy Tail family.

FTFT

"Master! Levy!" Erza's anxious voice rang through the guild causing the other wizards to turn to look at the entrance, taking in the heavily bound prisoner that she was pushing ahead of her. However, what caught their attention more were the expressions of concern on the three mages faces…wait three? They all did a double take as they took in the absence of the pink-haired dragonslayer – until their eyes fell on the tiny child Gray was holding tightly…a tiny, pink-haired child!

"Is that Natsu?!" Mirajane was the first to speak her eyes wide with shock as she moved forwards slightly, her expression darkening till it was reminiscent of her 'she-devil' personality as she took in the damage that had been done to boy.

"Aye!" Happy said weakly as he hovered above Gray worried eyes fixed on his partner.

"What happened?" Makarov demanded as he pushed through the gathering wizards, staring at the apparently unconscious child with a mixture of anger, alarm and fear.

"This idiot," Erza growled pointing her sword at her captive who gulped fearfully. " Managed to hit Natsu with a botched spell – and he doesn't know what he did!" Levy who had followed her master also glared at the captive before moving slightly closer to peer at Natsu with curious eyes.

"So it turned him into a child? Is that all?" She asked, already running over possible spells in her mind as she did and wondering whether she would need to contact Fried for help with breaking it.

"He told us that he's four. And he didn't remember any of us, we're not sure of what exactly he does remember," Lucy explained her face pale, she knew that they would have to tell their Master about what Natsu had said but she didn't think her friend would appreciate them blurting it out in front of him. "And he's hurt, but we don't know where the injuries came from! They're not ones that he should have got from the battle!" She added anxiously as her eyes returned to Natsu, before briefly meeting Gray's worried gaze.

"Let's get him upstairs," Makarov said wearily before turning to look at Erza and Levy. "Can you two get to work to see if we can figure out how to reverse this?" He added seriously, noting the conflict in Erza's expression as she looked between her friend and the captive before she sighed and nodded.

"Yes Master," Erza said briefly glancing once more at Natsu with concern before refocusing on her captive with a look that bode ill for his health if he failed to comply with her demands. Mirajane moved to follow Lucy and Gray as they followed their master to the stairs knowing that they would need her help.

FT

"We need to keep word of this quiet," Makarov said thoughtfully as he gazed out of the infirmary window, his eyes narrowed in thought. "Natsu has made plenty of enemies, and if they knew how vulnerable he is at the moment they could try something," his gaze drifted across to the bed that held their de-aged dragon slayer and then to the two mages sat attentively beside him and the worried blue exceed curled up on the bed. It was touching to see the closeness between them, even Gray had put aside all of the tensions and rivalry that lay between the two boys; he just wished the situation was so serious

"Agreed, and he can't be left alone," Mira added her own gaze also fixed on Natsu. "Although I don't think that will be a problem with those two and Erza," she indicated the other two with a small smile, but the older wizard knew that she would also be sticking close to Natsu; the take over mage had always looked out for Natsu and he knew that the loss of Lisanna had brought them closer with the dragon slayer helping both Mira and Elfman with their grief. Besides which her fury at the extent of the injuries that had been inflicted on the dragon slayer had almost seen her alternate personality make an appearance, and he couldn't help but pity anyone that so much as looked wrong at Natsu in his current state.

"Let's just hope Levy can cancel the spell soon," Makarov said, at that moment he was feeling every bit his age. Spells of this sort were always complicated, and with the fact that it had been poorly cast and had conflicted with other spells could mean that it was irreversible. Of even greater concern, at least from his stance as a pseudo-parent to his brats, was what Natsu had told his team-mates before passing out. This Natsu was younger than the one that had joined their guild, and Natsu had never told them anything about his childhood before Igneel except that the dragon had found him alone in the woods; it worried Makarov that those secrets were now coming to the fore without the dragon slayers awareness and consent. But more than that, it meant that this could be a very different child that they were facing…


	2. Chapter 2

Again apologies for the long wait folks. Thank you for all the reviews! And once more, Fairy Tail isn't mine, I am merely toying with it.

FTFT

2 days Later:

"He's waking up," Lucy called softly as she spotted faint movements from the bed, at once Erza and Gray were by the bed and she could see Mira and their Master watching anxiously from across the room. It had been a long couple of days waiting for their de-aged friend to come round, unfortunately they had made no progress on turning him back to normal so far. Levy and a newly returned Fried were currently locked in the library interrogating the idiot responsible and trying to come up with some way of restoring Natsu.

For now though she focused on the pink-haired child with concerned eyes, as he slowly scrunched up his face before inching his eyes open. A second later he had scrambled upright and was pressing himself against the headboard, hunkering down into a small ball as he registered that he was surrounded by people and more importantly people he didn't know.

"Natsu," she said softly, and after several minutes he peeked out at her from underneath his arms, eyes full of fear and confusion. After a moment recognition grew in his eyes and suddenly she found herself with an armful of shaking child, instinctively she wrapped her arms around him, surprised that he had chosen her out of all of them. "Shhh you're okay, you're safe," she murmured comfortingly as she shot alarmed looks at her friends, who gazed back at her with equally wide-eyed expressions.

"Where am I?" Natsu finally asked in a timid voice, his face still buried against Lucy and she could feel him trembling. Lucy felt a twinge of pain at the realisation that he didn't realise that he was at home, and she could see the same reaction in the others' faces. Natsu was always the one that made sure everyone both outside and inside the guild knew it was their home, their family; for him to have forgotten drove home how dire the situation was in a way that could not be ignored.

"You're at Fairy Tail a wizard guild," she explained softly completely unprepared for his reaction. As soon as she said the word 'wizard', his entire body stiffened and she frowned in confusion at the reaction, unconsciously loosening her hold on him.

"No, no, no, no. I'm not bad, I'm not a wizard, I'm not bad," abruptly he began to babble pulling away from her and retreating into his original huddle although this time he was trying to make himself even smaller. He kept repeating his words as though they were a mantra that would protect him, and wide-eyed Lucy looked around for help, stunned by his reaction and unsure how to calm him, as she didn't understand what had upset him.

"Natsu, Natsu," Mira called softly quickly pushing her way to the side of the bed, ignoring the indignant look Erza shot at her as she shoved the requip mage out of the way. Receiving no reaction from the panicking child, the take-over mage scooped the terrified child up, wrapping her arms protectively around him. "Shh its okay you're not bad, you're not bad," she chanted softly, moving away from the others, gently rocking the child as she continued to whisper soothingly to the boy. The others watched enchanted as slowly Natsu began to calm down under her gentle words and comfort; for Gray and Erza it was a surreal experience as they recalled the original interactions the two had shared when Natsu had been truly younger.

After long minutes had passed the white-haired mage slowly ceased her pacing and rocking, peering down at the now quiet child in her arms and smiling tenderly as she realised he had gone to sleep once more.

"He's asleep poor thing," she said softly to the others, although she made no move to return him to the bed, instead continuing to rock him gently as she reached up to dry the tear tracks marring his face.

"What was that about?" Gray asked anxiously as he stared at the child, dark eyes full of concern as he recalled the sheer terror Natsu had shown towards being in a wizard's guild…and his desperate denial that he wasn't a wizard. His friend loved being a wizard, and had always been proud of his magic from the moment he set foot in Fairy Tail; not once had he shown any fear towards his magic, not even when he achieved feats that should have been impossible.

"I have no idea," Erza muttered staring at Natsu, partially wishing that she had been the one to comfort him, but realising that Mira was much more suited to the mothering role. Particularly as Erza was currently fighting the urge to go downstairs and take out her anger and stress on their prisoner…only the fact that he was still needed to help them fix this was holding her back and she knew that when (she refused to think 'if') Natsu was better, then nothing would be able to stop her.

"Did Natsu ever say anything to you about his life before Igneel?" Makarov asked hopefully, praying that the dragon slayer had given them some clue as to what was behind his current behaviour but that hope died a swift death as the teens all look blankly at him. "Something must have happened before that, that made him like this," he explained with a sigh, it looked as though they were going to have to try and get answers out Natsu…although how they were going to do that when even the mention of wizards had sent him into hysterics.

"He'll tell us when he's ready," Mira spoke up as she moved slowly around the room, her eyes intent on the precious burden in her arms, a sad smile on her lips. "He already has some trust in us otherwise he wouldn't have gone to Lucy or let me settle him, as long as we don't go at the issue directly I'm sure he'll tell us."

"But do we have the time to wait?" Gray asked anxiously. "If this issue is contributing to him being stuck like this then we need to get to the bottom of it sooner rather than later. Besides which if he's that scared of magic he might try and run."

"Gray has a point," Erza admitted reluctantly, hating the idea that Natsu, no matter what form he might take would ever feel the need to try and leave Fairy Tail. "And there's always magic being used here, that's too many potential triggers."

"But it wouldn't be safe to move him elsewhere either," Makarov said with a frown as he considered their words, his gaze wandering between the tiny boy and his friends who were all watching him with worried expressions. "Natsu has to stay here despite the other issues, there is too much risk of someone going after him. I also think that Mira's approach might be better," the guild master glanced at Mira smiling as the girl fussed over Natsu. "If we push to hard, even given the situation, we might force him away from us."

"Then what should we do?" Lucy asked worriedly. "We can keep him up here and away from magic for now while he's healing, and make sure no one does magic if they visit him. But eventually he's going to want to go beyond this room."

"It'll be a few days yet, hopefully in that time we can try and find out a little bit about what happened before we 'found' him," Gray said with a scowl. "If we just focus on events and try not to mention magic, he might be willing to tell us more about how his 'mama left him'," If anything the ice mage's scowl deepened at that. He'd always been curious as to how Igneel had just found Natsu in the forest one day, but he'd always imagined that Natsu had accidently ended up separated from his family or that something had happened to them and Natsu had escaped, the idea that someone had made the decision to leave a child as small as Natsu in a forest inhabited by goodness knows what (besides apparently friendly Dragons) unsettled him and set an angry fire in his gut.

"Gray and Mira," Makarov said seriously and they all turned to look at him. "I want the pair of you to stay up here with him, when he wakes up try and play with him and distract him from happened earlier. If you can get him to tell you anything that's good, but don't push him." The two teens nodded although Gray was slightly confused as to why he had been chosen, Mira made sense since Natsu was currently sleeping peacefully in her arms, but he would have thought Lucy was a better choice and he glanced at her.

"I'm the one that said he was in a wizard's guild," she explained sadly seeing the question in his eyes. "Until we get him settled about magic he's going to be wary of me," her eyes glistened and she had to look away at that, hating the idea that her Nakama was afraid of her.

"You can come and help me," Erza said glancing at their Master with understanding in her eyes, accepting that for now she had to relinquish her duty over Natsu. "We're going to need to go and get some things for him, after all we don't have really young children in the guild at the moment so we need clothes and some toys as well if we want to settle him down." Lucy nodded in understanding and managed a somewhat wobbly smile.

"Just be careful what you say," Makarov cautioned, after all their guild and therefore its members were well known in the town and he didn't want to end up with people trying to snoop into guild business.

"Yes Master," Erza said with a grim smile understanding the hidden meaning before she turned to look at Mira and Gray. "Take care of him," she said her voice much softer and they both nodded as they realised how reluctant she was to leave him.

"Of course," Gray said meeting her gaze squarely, satisfied she gestured to Lucy and both girls headed for the door although they hesitated briefly in the doorway, looking back at their de-aged friend before finally disappearing.

"I'll go and see how Levy and Fried are getting on," Makarov added also heading for the door, it was hard for him to be in the same room as Natsu, knowing that the boy had no idea about how close they really were, and knowing that the child was in pain with no way for the guild master to help. It was times like this he mused as he glanced back to see Mira sitting down on the bed with Natsu and Gray moving to sit beside her, that he felt that perhaps he wasn't cut out for parenthood.

FTFT

Three hours later:

Mira and Gray both looked up as they heard movement from the bed, onyx and blue eyes meeting before they cautiously approached the bed. They hoped that Natsu would largely have forgotten the earlier incidence, especially after his inadvertent nap, and especially given his age. Their hopes appeared to be fulfilled when the boy sat up in bed rubbing sleepily at his eyes and looking around curiously, he shrank away slightly when he saw them, but it wasn't the same sheer terror that sent him into tears earlier.

"Hi Natsu," Gray greeted softly crouching down so that he wasn't towering over the bed, smiling as sleepy olive eyes peered at him with a mixture of wariness and curiosity. "Do you remember me from in the woods? My name is Gray," he added and bit back a snort of laughter as Natsu screwed up his nose in thought, the expression was adorable and the ice mage knew that when the flamebrain was back to normal he was going to have lots of blackmail material. Refocusing on his friend he was relieved when Natsu nodded and gave him a tentative smile before his gaze turned to Mira. "This is my friend Mira," Gray explained and Natsu nodded slowly before going bright red, for a moment the teen was confused before he realised that Natsu had remembered that Mira had been the one to hug him and rock him to sleep.

"Are you feeling better now?" Mira asked as she sat on the side of the bed, noting the blush but refusing to comment on it, shooting a quick glare at Gray who rolled his eyes at her.

"'m hungry," Natsu whispered barely able to look at her although the blush was fading, and as he spoke his stomach growled loudly causing him to grab at it with a small squeak. Gray couldn't hold back a laugh this time, and ignored the admonishing swipe from Mira as he chuckled.

"I think that must mean its lunchtime," he said cheerfully smiling at Natsu who looked up at him hopefully. "I'll go and see what I can find," he said glancing at Mira before getting to his feet and heading for the door.

"Make sure it's healthy," she called after him and he turned around to stick his tongue out at her before slipping out of the room. Mira smiled as Natsu giggled slightly at Gray's behaviour and she knew that had been the reason behind the ice mage's actions, the take-over mage made a note to tease Gray about it at a later date once everything was sorted out. "Boys," she muttered with false irritation and beamed as it set Natsu off again, his laugh pealed across the room and she was relieved to see at least a part of the child that she had known showing through.

"Mira-san?" She looked up at the quiet question and found the child peering shyly at her as he shifted restlessly. "Can I go to the toilet?" He asked nervously and she smiled reassuringly at him.

"Of course it's just in there," she pointed at a door across the room and then hesitated. "Are you okay to move on your own?" She asked and he paused considering before nodding somewhat uncertainly. "Alright then off you go," she said encouragingly, watching with eagle eyes as he carefully slid off the bed wincing slightly at the movement before he slowly walked across the room.

FT

"Where's Natsu?" Gray asked as he slipped back into the room carefully balancing a tray of food and a mug of hot chocolate (Natsu's favourite drink from when he was little!) as he closed the door behind him.

"In the bathroom," Mira replied as she examined the tray that he laid on the bed, smiling in approval at the stew and bread and bowl of fruit that he'd brought.

"Don't look like that, it's your brother that did it," Gray grumbled as he glanced across at the bathroom door. "Did he say anything else?"

"Nothing apart from asking to go to the toilet, but he was giggling at you after you'd left," she teased and the ice mage huffed, sitting down on the edge of the bed. A moment later the bathroom door slid open and Natsu emerged peering around cautiously and relaxing when he saw that it was still just the two of them.

"Come and eat Natsu," Mira called and he immediately perked up hurrying as fast as his battered body would allow, the take-over mage reached out to steady him as he clambered onto the bed. Olive eyes went wide as he took in the meal before he looked at them with a clear question in his eyes even as his stomach growled again. "Eat up it's all for you," Mira encouraged and without further urging Natsu dug in, eating with a gusto that forcibly reminded them of their Natsu; although in his current form it was a lot cuter than in the teenage dragon slayer.

"Woah you must have been hungry," Gray teased gently as he took in the empty plate, and Natsu's smile disappeared abruptly as he stared down at his empty plate. The ice mage frowned at the action and shared a worried look with Mira. "What's up Natsu?" He asked softly, wary of setting the child off again but also hoping that they might get a bit more information on Natsu's past.

"Mama di'n't give me any food," Natsu mumbled so quietly that they had to lean in to hear him, and Gray's eyes flashed as his mind darted back to Natsu's earlier claim that his mother had left him. It was sounding more and more like his friend had just been abandoned, but why? Why would someone leave a child like Natsu?

"But weren't you just out for a walk in the wood?" Mira asked and Gray shot her an incredulous look before nearly hitting himself as he realised that she was trying to trick more information out of the child. Natsu shook his head violently, his little hands clenching into his fists as he shook slightly clearly fighting the urge to burst into tears.

"I was very bad," Natsu said seriously as he gazed up at Gray and Mira, olive eyes damp as tears threatened to escape once more. His expression was what really struck the two teens though, he looked more serious and world-weary than any four-year old should and it took all of Mira's determination to gently ask.

"What did you do Natsu?"


End file.
